This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog. 

For years, scientists have been warning us that the San Andreas fault is “locked and loaded” and could potentially “unzip all at once”.  Of course, the two large earthquakes that we just witnessed in southern California were not along the San Andreas fault, and we should be extremely thankful for that.

Because they happened in remote areas, those two quakes didn’t cause an enormous amount of damage, but they should still be taken as a warning.  The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that rattled Southern California on Friday night was felt in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and northern Mexico simultaneously, but if a magnitude 9.0 earthquake suddenly hit the San Andreas fault it would be 707 times more powerful than the quake that we just witnessed, and it would happen in a very heavily populated area.  Needless to say, the death and destruction would be unimaginable, and scientists keep telling us that southern California is way overdue for “the Big One” to strike.

So if you live in California right now, you have a decision to make.

Right now the crust of our planet is becoming exceedingly unstable, and the infamous Ring of Fire runs directly along the west coast of the United States.

Do you really want to keep pressing your luck?  Yes, things had been rather quiet for the last couple of decades, but now California is starting to shake like a leaf.  According to the Los Angeles Times, there have been at least 3,000 earthquakes in southern California since the 4th of July…

Since the Fourth, Caltech seismologists have detected at least 3,000 smaller earthquakes.

Those include 340 earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 3, 52 with a magnitude greater than 4, and six with a magnitude greater than 5, Egill Hauksson said Saturday.

In total, this earthquake sequence is expected to generate about 34,000 aftershocks with a magnitude 1 or greater over the next six months, he said.

These days Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones has become “the go-to expert” that everyone in the mainstream media wants to talk to about California earthquakes, and according to her, there is a “nearly 11%” chance that southern California will get hit by another magnitude 7 or greater earthquake this week…

The odds that Southern California will experience another earthquake of magnitude 7 or greater in the next week are now nearly 11%, according to preliminary estimates from seismologists.

And the chances that a quake will surpass the 7.1 temblor that struck near Ridgecrest on Friday night are roughly 8% to 9%, said Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones.

Of course, Jones previously told us that there was only a very small chance that the magnitude 6.4 Ridgecrest earthquake was a foreshock for a larger event, and yet that is precisely what happened.

Ultimately, just like everyone else, Jones is essentially giving us her best guess.  It may be an educated guess, but it is still a guess.

And she is also telling us that the aftershocks from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that we just witnessed could “last for years”…

Though such quakes would be more likely to occur in the next few days, the shaking could continue for quite some time.

“A magnitude 7 usually has aftershocks that last for years,” Jones said.

But aftershocks are not a reason to move out of the state of California.

Very small earthquakes are not going to change history, but when “the Big One” finally arrives, nothing will ever be the same again.

Earlier today, I came across a CNN headline which boldly declared that they had “debunked” the “myth” that a portion of southern California could one day go into the ocean.

Since I had just written about this, I eagerly clicked on the story to see the amazing “evidence” that they were using to “debunk” this “myth”.  Unsurprisingly, this was the extent of the “evidence” that they offered…

Here’s some comforting words for every California resident contemplating a permanent relocation.

The USGS calls the the idea that the state will be swept out to sea “absolutely impossible.”

What will continue to happen however, is the slow — about two-inches-per-year slow — northward movement of southwestern California toward Alaska, as it slides past central and eastern California.

Wow, that is quite a powerful argument they laid out there.

I assume that what is being referred to here is the idea that a portion of California could snap off the continent like a cookie and sink into the ocean, and of course, that isn’t going to happen.

However, much of southern California is barely above sea level, and scientists have discovered that past earthquakes have caused the ground in the region to sink by as much as three feet.  If such an earthquake happened today, vast stretches of southern California could suddenly go underwater as the Pacific Ocean came pouring in.

So instead of talking about southern California “going into the ocean”, perhaps it would be more accurate for us to talk about “the Pacific Ocean going into southern California”.

Cal State Fullerton professor Matt Kirby was one of the lead researchers on the groundbreaking study that alerted all of us to this possibility, and he says that if a large enough earthquake happened today “you would see seawater rushing in”…

‘It´s something that would happen relatively instantaneously,’ Kirby said.

‘Probably today if it happened, you would see seawater rushing in.’

Southern California is essentially a time bomb, and it is absolutely riddled with fault lines.  In fact, a Fox News article says that there are more than five hundred active fault lines in the region right now…

Like a major river, the San Andreas has many tributaries – faults big and small that fan out and fracture the state from top to bottom. As a result, most Californians live within thirty miles of an active fault line, of which there are more than five hundred.

So do you feel lucky?

Maybe you do, and that is fine.

But someday your luck will run out.

We have entered the time of “the perfect storm”, and major seismic events are going to become increasingly common.  As sure as you are reading this article, someday the kind of earthquake that I am talking about will come to California, and the death toll will be off the charts.

Unfortunately, most Californians are not going to listen to the warnings.  For example, one small business owner named Albert Adi told CNN that the risk of earthquakes is something he is willing to tolerate in order to live in a place “with beautiful weather and good job opportunities”…

Ultimately, he said, it’s just one of the tradeoffs of living in a place with beautiful weather and good job opportunities.

“It’s the risk you have to accept by living here in Southern California,” he said.

“Hopefully,” he added, “everything will work out.”

Blind hope is not a strategy.

Today, California is on the cutting edge of everything that is wrong with America.  The state is at the forefront of our moral, social and political decay, and the filth being produced by our entertainment industry has infected the entire globe.

Unless you have an overwhelming reason to stay, I don’t know why anyone would possibly want to live on the west coast at this point.

A day of reckoning for the state of California is approaching very rapidly, and you don’t want to be there when that day finally arrives.

 Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News.

Preparedness is multi-faceted and is best accomplished with a clear purpose in mind. Michael Snyder offers sound economic reasons to prepare while addressing the struggles that many Christians face regarding preparedness. His advice will comfort and uplift the reader, offering peace of mind that preparedness brings during uncertain times. –Get Prepared Now!: Why A Great Crisis Is Coming & How You Can Survive It, book description